How NASA might change under Donald Trump

Although the details are still in flux, the transition team is reviewing them NASA It has begun its activities drafting potential executive orders to make changes to space policy under the Trump administration.

Sources familiar with the five people on the team, who have spent the past six weeks evaluating the space agency and its exploration plans, are careful to note that these teams are advisory in nature. They do not formally set policy and their work does not always indicate the direction in which the next presidential administration will move.

However, in trying to set clear goals for NASA and civilian space policy, the ideas under consideration reflect the Trump administration’s desire to make “big changes” at NASA, both in terms of increasing the effectiveness and speed of its programs.

It’s not business as usual

The transition team was grappling with an agency that had a surplus of field centers — ten spread across the United States, plus an official headquarters in Washington, D.C. — and large, slow-moving programs that cost a lot of money and were slow to produce results.

“It won’t be business as usual,” said one person familiar with the group’s meetings. The mindset driving their deliberations is a focus on results and speed.

Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his second term as president a little less than a month from now, on January 20th. On that day, he is expected to sign a number of executive orders on issues he has focused on in his election campaign. This could include space policy, but that will likely have to wait until later in his presidency.

One source said the space transition team was working on ideas that Trump has spoken about publicly, including his interest in Mars. For example, during a campaign speech this fall, Trump referenced SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who played an important role during the campaign in terms of time and money, and his desire to colonize Mars.

“We are leading in space, ahead of Russia and China. It is my plan. I will talk to Elon.” Trump said in September. “Elon launched those rocket ships because we want to get to Mars before the end of my term, and we also want to have significant military protection in space.”

Ideas under consideration

The transition team discusses potential elements of an executive order or other policy directives. They include:

• Setting the goal of sending humans to the Moon and Mars by 2028
• Canceling the costly Space Launch System rocket and possibly the Orion spacecraft
• Goddard Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center merged into Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama
• Maintain a small administrative presence in Washington, D.C., but otherwise move headquarters to a field center
• Rapidly redesigning the Artemis lunar program to make it more efficient